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TEACHERS DON'T NEED GUNS
While there are no words to express how
the whole country wishes that the tragedy in
Sandy Hook had never happened, the National
Rifle Association did not ease my fears as a
teacher in an elementary school when they
suggested putting an armed guard in front of
every school. This does not protect my stu
dents from what is harming them every day.
This does not help me or these children sleep
better at night.
This county can't afford resources and staff
in school. My district had to cut our teachers'
aides, and we can't afford to hire more special
education teachers, even though we need
them. The state can't afford safer foster living
environments or boarding homes for at-risk
kids, but the NRA still offered an expensive
solution to hire a guy with a gun to stand in
front of the school every day. According to
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre,
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a
gun is a good guy with a gun."
If you need one more reason to be afraid of
horrible things that happen rarely, the NRA is
great at giving you one; so I feel like it's only
fair if teachers get to speak up and tell you all
the other things you should be afraid of, too.
The NRA's idea to bring guns into schools
is one that benefits them and makes us fear
ful of something that has happened one time.
Yet, there was an armed guard at Columbine,
and he was unable to prevent that horrific
day. If you ask teachers, many would be terri
fied of the troubled students who are already
threatening our lives and other students' lives
daily by having access to a gun. The kids who
already lunge at us, throw chairs, and who
already have lunged at police off of the school
campus. If the NRA is calling for the federal
government to step in, then so am I. There are
many bad guys threatening our students every
day. If we are to give them what the NRA
referred to as "the greatest level of protec
tion," then we need to make the education of
young students our biggest priority by dealing
with the bad guys teachers fight off every day.
Every week is a battle against the bad guys
who are getting in the way of my students
having a safe and wonderful place to learn
each day. My students meet bad guys more
often then most people know. Sometimes the
bad guy is whoever is responsible for taking
staff out of our schools so the students have
to fight for attention because we have to
increase class sizes. Other times, the bad guy
is the family that I had to send a child home
to after they were removed from their foster
home. Having no other options due to fund
ing, the state had to place a student back in
a home where an abuser was living because
the state can't afford more safe homes for
children. This year, the bad guy was also the
school district, when teachers had to cut
out a reading program (among many other
resources we needed) that was successful at
helping struggling readers, because it was too
expensive. Another bad guy I encountered
this week was a situation when one child kept
bullying another child, and when his parents
were called in, they thought it was funny and
said nothing when their child tried to kick the
principal in front of them.
Let's stand up and protect our children
from the bad guys that endanger our students
every day. The teachers are already fighting
this fight, and we desperately need some
backup.
Lisa Bendetti
Athens
WALMART SELLS SEMIS
I hope the Walmart protesters notice that
Walmart, while removing the Bushmaster???the
semi-automatic used by the Newtown, CT mass
murderer???from its Internet sales format, still
sells that abomination in its stores. Shouldn't
the outrage over Walmart's child exploitation
in poor nations and labor practices here at
home extend to its sale of guns that are not
needed for hunting
or personal protec
tion? Isn't this a
greater moral issue
than those that have
drawn ire toward this
amoral business?
I hope our com
munity can muster
the energy to con
demn this company for profiting from the sale
of weapons that have been used time and
time again to slaughter innocent citizens, now
including our nation's children. Let Walmart
know that the citizens of our community will
boycott and picket if necessary as long as it
sells these assault weapons knowing that they
are the favorite weapon of mass murderers and
equally insane gun nuts who somehow glean
a second amendment right to own and market
this unacceptable means of mass destruction.
Hue Henry
Athens
DON???T BASH VEGAN FOOD
Recently, your food writer just about
trashed the new vegan restaurant [Broad
Street Coffee], saying, "The seaweed salad,
which combines red dulse and green wakame
seaweed with veggies and an Asian dressing,
needs more protein than the sprinkling of
toasted sesame seeds can provide and, despite
filling your tummy, will leave you hungry and
cranky a few hours later."
She directs the reader to the new Steak 'N
Shake, saying that the milk shake will leave
you "logy," but that would be worth it. Please!
This is the same as having a music reviewer
slam a local band and then say, "You'd be bet
ter staying out of the clubs. Go listen to cor
porate rock on the radio." That doesn't happen
because the Flagpole understands the aesthet
ics and politics of the alternative culture when
it comes to music. But when it comes to food?
I might as well be reading a non-professional
version of USA Today.
Cal Clements
Athens
GRUB NOTES RESPONSE
Cal is, of course, entitled to his opinion, just
as I am to mine, but I don't want people to
think of that column as a verdict on corporate
versus non-corporate food, just a pairing of two
restaurants that opened around the same time
and offer very different things to mostly very
different clientele. It is a food writer's responsi
bility, to do her job correctly, to eat as much of
what nature and man provide as possible and
to see how it succeeds on its own merits. If you
are vegan and health-focused, Steak ???N Shake is
probably not the best
restaurant for you. If
you are looking for
a quick hamburger
and fries that are an
improvement over the
ones at many other
corporate chains, it
may well be. The real
question, for me, is
???Is it good?" That's how I assess what I eat
on a professional basis and have been doing so
for eight years, during which time I have cham
pioned many a small, local business and been
disappointed in many a chain. Also vice versa.
Different people have different priorities when
it comes to what they eat. My job is to give
you information and some opinion and let you
decide for yourself if you want to go somewhere
or not. The restaurant business is a tough one,
but I do no one any favors by handing out ???A"s
for effort all around.
Hillary Brown
UGA RIPS OFF FANS
I just learned a new way that the UGA
Athletic Association rips off loyal fans (of
which I am one). On the postseason ticket
order sheet, I had the opportunity to order
crappy seats for the Capital One Bowl for $87
or "premium sideline" for $92. Naturally, I
ordered the $92 seats, but I got the crappy
$87 seats anyway. It turns out that the $92
seats are a bait-and-switch reserved for deep-
pocket donors. If you are an ordinary fan, UGA
will sell you an end zone ticket with a face
of $87 and a market value of $60. Actually,
the big donors don't make out so well, either:
They just get to buy a $92 ticket with a mar
ket value of $85-$90. Bottom line: Don't buy
post-season tickets from UGA except as a last
resort. They will rip you off. Total scam.
David Schiller
Athens
HEY CYCLISTS, GET LIGHTS
I am a grad student at UGA and make a
short drive most nights to campus for studying
and class work. I drive down Lumpkin and am
flabbergasted at the bikes I notice that don't
have any lights on them!
At the risk of sounding like I ought to be
carrying a cane and shouting phrases like
"You whippersnapper" and "You didn't see
THAT when I was your age..." I appeal to
the students???(who else would it be?) who
make any trip at night on their bike???to GET
A FREAKING SET OF FRAKKING BIKE LIGHTS!!!
Even when driving at 35 miles per hour, the
distance between a darkened rider and an
automobile when the driver finally decides to
look up from the texting or the burger or the
radio or (heaven forbid) actually out the front
windshield, is too short to be of any use if the
driver decides that he doesn't want to hit the
biker. Let's face it, counting on the vigilance
of the Athens community [of] drivers is...
Let's just say that the trust is misplaced.
If a biker makes itself visible at a great
distance, then the driver KNOWS the biker is
there and probably will make allowances when
passing. I have found this to be the case,
overwhelmingly so, because I make myself
noticeable when biking. When one is seen,
the drivers are willing to share the road. It is
the biker's responsibility to be seen!!! Get a
bright light for your handlebars (not the little
three-million candlepower spy-chip that sticks
to your helmet. HELMET? Oh, don't get me
started...) and a blazing red beacon for the
tail. These can be gotten cheaply on Amazon
(BELL brand is bright, mildly rugged and so
freaking ugly that no one will steal it), so no
whining!! One can also get very nice recharge
able sets that can blaze a path through pea
soup!
So, all this is to ask if your distinguished
paper could take a few inches of print (or
electrons) to remind the youngsters that no
one has to get squished while riding at night,
that the way to keep from becoming road
pizza is to be VISIBLE, and a reliable way to
do that is to equip one's bike with a bright,
white light fixed to the handlebars and a
screaming red beacon in the rear.
Shannon Mikus
Athens
BUMPERSTICKER OF THE WEEK:
Gay Marriage. An Oxymoron
Thanks, Bob. Send your sticker-sightings to
letters@flagpole.com.
m
Athens???
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4 FLAGPOLE.COM ??? JANUARY 9, 2013